in the mean time..

hallo, from hong kong once again. i hope that your christmas and new year were eventful and blessed beyond all that you could comprehend. i pray that Jesus was seen throughout it all and that you are able to see this new year as another opportunity to serve Him. theres been a lot and not a lot to report. the past month of december (and even part of november) have been quite interesting for bud and i. first i got sick, then bud got sick. then i got sick again and bud hung on to his sickness as though he LIKED it. then we both gradually got rid of what it was that we had. then i broke out with a high fever for 4 or 5 days (it was ridiculous, going from freezing and shivering to waking up in a pool of sweat because the fever meds started to work, the whole shebang) and then all of a sudden; i was better. but now its january 5 and i am sick again. this time the doctor gave me antibiotics and other pills to help with recovery. the bad thing about it is the medication makes me very jittery! so i feel as though i'm wiggling in my chair when i'm actually not! don't get me wrong, i like to dance in my chair just as much as the next gal, but not when its involuntary (and when only i can feel it and no one else can see it)! so that was our month of SICK. we think that the cause of my sickness and part of buds is that our little flat, although we love it, it has a big problem with mold. and unless we take EVERYTHING out of the house, flood the place with bleach for a day and then mop it up, i don't see how its going to go away. it may come down to a professional cleaner.

in december, i started working a lot more. i teach every saturday still and then i also did a few jobs, substituting at bud's centre. i also received my dependency visa finally - and when i went to activate it, i had some trouble with hong kong immigration. when i filed for my dependency visa, they did not switch my "status" in hong kong to "dependent" when they should have. so i tried to leave the country to go into mainland china only to find out that i am considered an "overstay-er" in hong kong, so i will have to pay a fee. granted the fee is only $160HKD which comes to about $20.50USD so its not a big deal. just a pain and inconvenience. but fortunately, hong kong immigration was very nice in the whole ordeal. also, they realized that my old passport was canceled (because i got a new one to change my name from my maiden name to my husbands last name - weird... i have a maiden name now. woah! the things you realize after being married for a bit. haha! sorry! back to the story) and said i may not be able to cross into china. so they took the liberty to call china immigration and see if they would allow me to cross into china (considering my old visa did not have a stamp saying canceled on it so i believe that it is still valid) with proof of my old passport that has my chinese visa and my new passport to show that i'm the same person, just have a new last name now! unfortunately, china said that they would not allow it. which is strange because i have spoke to 2 separate people who had their names changed and they were able to cross with both passports. so i don't know - maybe china is just cracking down a bit harder these days. so we are in the process of getting my chinese visa switched over to have my new last name. apparently it is very cheap and i'll have it in 4 buisness days. so thats good. and then i'll be able to cross into china and validate my dependency visa. hoorah!

bud and i celebrated our first christmas making phone calls to the states and having a long conversation via skype and instant messenger with is parents/family. that was really nice. we also went to "fat angelos", an amazing italian restaraunt for dinner. we were forced to spend $300 HKD for the meal and we had to figure out, just how in the world do we spend that much money? we're used to keeping things as cheap as possible! it was pretty funny. that was about the extent of our christmas, quiet but nice. although we very much missed all of you in america! we love you! our new years was even more quiet. we barely even realized that it had hit 2008/midnight. we didn't want to travel down to the harbour to see 7millionish people swarming the place, so we decided to stay home. and at that time is when i started feeling sick again. so we just made phone calls to say happy new year to people and that was that. bud and i also celebrated my 24th birthday! eww, i'm 24 now. gross. such a weird age, i can almost rent a car! so the first half was kind of sucky - full of miscommunication and stress (mostly because i was not feeling good and was being moody). but the second half was good. i went down to sheung shui, got meds from the doctor and then bud and i went to Friday's (yes they have friday's here, also california pizza kitchen, outback steakhouse and ruby tuesdays) for my dinner. it was delicious and fun, although the room was freezing so we left as soon as we were finished eating. (the weather has been in the 50's and bud and i feel ridiculous because we're freezing when most of you that are reading this are in the 30-40 degree mark with snow or cold rain! - sorry, we've turned into wimps. even i have! i'm very ashamed. ;-P)

anyway, now we have some things on our plate that we will not divulge yet, but will in due time. but please pray with us that we will know the best course of action regarding the things before us. that we will listen to the voice of the Lord. that we will choose wisely (wow, a flash of indiana jones just came into my head) and that if there is to be a sort of transition, that it will be smooth and stress free. we love you and thank you for baring with our lack of updates and what seems to be lack of things to report. but i assure you, when things pick back up (when we're not sick anymore and things around town have calmed away from the holiday season) - we will keep you better informed. now i must go! i am going to be late, meeting my friend maggie for lunch before work! when i get home from work, i will also write some prayer requests for you. i have a few! love you all. be blessed.

agape,
christin joy.